Nokia announced that it has upgraded the long-haul microwave trunk network of Cosmote, the mobile operation of OTE Group, Greece’s largest telecoms provider and a Deutsche Telekom company, to enhance network capacity and performance, particularly in rural locations of the Greek islands.
Based on the Nokia 9500 microwave packet radio technology, the upgrade is designed to enable Cosmote to meet growing demand from residents and tourists for broadband access in underserved areas of the islands. The Nokia solution will enable traffic backhaul at speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s using IP connectivity for both mobile and fixed networks.
Following the upgrade, Nokia’s long-haul microwave technology will enable backhauling of traffic across multiple Aegean islands, with the solution designed to provide fibre-like connectivity as well as backhaul redundancy to improve the reliability of services.
Nokia stated that a key part of the project is the use of microwave technology to deliver broadband connectivity to the island of Kastellorizo, the most easterly of the Greek islands, located more than 150 km away from the nearest network point of presence. Nokia added that by upgrading the existing SDH-microwave trunk-based network, Cosmote was also able to reuse existing passive radio equipment and so reduce the cost of the project.
- In 2016, Huawei and Cosmote announced the completion of a field trial of Super Dual Band microwave technology enabling multi-Gbit/s backhaul capacity. It was noted that as it rolled out LTE services, Cosmote had been upgrading the RAN and identified the need for greater backhaul capacity. The microwave technology trial with Huawei was designed to help address the increasing demand for mobile broadband applications.
